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This chapter highlights some population‐level health challenges, such as obesity and poor nutrition. The wide‐ranging remedies that are typically utilized to help meet such broad challenges contrast with the Precision Health approaches, which are tailored to specific individuals. But the two are not in conflict. In fact, they can complement each other, thanks to the explosion of data generated from sources such as wearable devices, electronic health records, insurance claims, and clinical trials. These data, when coupled with the technology to manage and analyze them, make it possible to target emerging diseases with precise interventions at the level of the individual and at the level of the population as a whole. For example, as we further explore the roles of diet and exercise in preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer, we are likely to discover optimal combinations of certain behaviors for certain genotypes and phenotypes, leading to precise approaches to prevention rather than the one‐size‐fits‐all public guidance that has long characterized our approach.

The intersection of population health and Precision Health has also enabled the creation of new scientific approaches to meet health challenges. That was part of the impetus for Stanford establishing the Center for Population Health Sciences in 2015. The center is focused on improving individual and population health by fostering collaboration across diverse disciplines and data, with the goal of understanding and addressing social, environmental, behavioral, and biological factors on a domestic and global scale. It has more than 750 members, more than 230 research trainees, 42 community partners, and research in 24 countries. Its research initiatives span a wide variety of topics, including community resilience and socioeconomic equity, gender, and healthy aging. The center’s work emphasizes linking the precise determinants of an individual’s health to the underlying drivers of population health—encompassing lifestyle choices, social factors, the environment, infectious agents, medical care, and genetics.

By applying Precision Health solutions to improve population health, especially in underserved populations, and by using lessons learned from large populations to predict, prevent, and cure more precisely, we can maximize wellness for all individuals and impact millions of lives.